It appears as though I have been tried and found guilty by stis202. You've got some generous huevos, I'll grant you that. But you're FOS on this.

Like all of you, I am tethered to this company and I want nothing more than for us to succeed wildly, for us to receive a fat PS check and a lucrative contract. To not be strung out and then offered pennies on the dollar in lieu of retroactive pay. To not cave for ANY concessions in a time of astonishing profit following decades of staggering losses. To suggest that I have outward malice to my livelihood and almost every penny of my future retirement earnings is absurd and chaps me a bit. This airline was my number one choice. But, this is APC and sadly, absolutely nothing surprises me here anymore.

Having played the "shared sacrifice" game very unsuccessfully more than once, I merely want to KEEP what has been fought for and negotiated for by my union. I want a fair and equitable contract which is fairly administered and adhered to. I don't want to have to file pay claims or fight for reimbursement of expenses which I made out of pocket while carrying out my responsibilities. And I don't want to be asked to bail anyone out in order to keep my job, particularly when those with their hand out have always rewarded themselves so richly once the wagon is back on the track. Thanks, but I already gave at the office. More than once and at more than one carrier.

You can learn a lot from history if you choose to. Not just ours, but that of our pilot brothers throughout the industry. Or, you can assume that benevolence will rule the day and times will always be this good.

I could write a lot more to illustrate my point, but I don't think that would be wise. History has proven that as well.

Stis202 either has amnesia or is ignorant to what happened, not only to United Pilots, but to all pilots during the Dark Decade. Mako speaks of wisdom and knowledge of what will happen again if we are not vigilant. As soon as things are good, they can go sideways. Management is not our friend. They will be fine regardless. Us and our fellow employees will take the brunt for their mistakes.

The list is to long to put everything down but I’ll just hit some of my high lights of the dark decade.

ESOP taken
Pension taken
ERC (Economic Recovery Contract) x 2, fancy words for massive pay cuts and reduction in work rules.

I went from 777 F/O to 737 F/O on top of the first 18% paycut. Worked out to about a 65% reduction in income. I worked construction on my days off for cash under the table to make ends meet. Si! Se hable Espanol! It helps in that business..

Bounced up and down (surplused) 5 times

Watched the general attitude towards pilots go from “working together” to skrew you in any and all aspects of the operation.

Management took great pride and acted with fanatical glee in their psychotic quest to make our lives as miserable as possible.

They (management) lied, cheated and stole anything they could legally or covertly and illegally get away with.

While it’s hard for people that weren’t here during those time to believe it. This will happen again, it’s the ying and the yang of the airline industry. While we may have a few different clowns under the big top right now. It’s the same circus and the evil clowns are simply waiting for their turn to be in the spotlight again.

The orgy of cutbacks that every single airline management team in the country participated in, all under the guise of 9/11, was sickening to watch. They went after EVERY SINGLE thing they could because they knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to grab EVERYTHING they could. Payback is a *****.

Shortest and best summation I've ever seen.

Don’t want to go through that again. I wasn’t at UAL, but it was the same movie. I think the only people who saw business boom post 911 were the TSA.

Ripping on Mako will only make him mad and he’ll quit posting fishing pictures. We can’t have that. They’re the highlight of any thread.

Mako / Airhoss,
Thanks for that.
Good perspective.
Good posts.

We all went through a rough patch in our careers, but sorry doesn’t justify Mako bagging on a guy who helps the company, makes himself some money and does it all within the contract, I flew with a guy last month that wouldn’t extend by 5 minutes because he was ****ed that UAL parked its 737 10 plus years ago, he’d rather f@#k over the 150 people in back who pay his check every month. We have a great contract make a great living, instead of dwelling on what was in the past or what might happen, maybe stand up and show your a professional and that your worth that fat check you want every month. Thankfully the vast majority of pilots seem to get it.

Parking that fleet the same year we made $1B in profits and then immediately buying CAL was certainly to make sure the DOJ would approve it. Post-merge UAL placed an order for 150 new 737s, and recalled all the pilots the day after the SLI. That is certainly not coincidence. Management has been out to get UAL pilots for a long time. That move cost UAL pilots 800 status and category Captains and 800 status and category FOs, and affected everyone in the bottom half of the seniority list, which is why we have UAL 98 hires never furloughed merged with CAL 2006 hires. I don’t waive anything for this company either.

I got furloughed too, different times, I let it go, that’s your choice I guess to dwell on it, but don’t subsequently ***** about DAL better profit sharing, our performance etc etc if your being part of the problem. Sorry I’m not willing to stick it to the man because they might do something to me ten years down the road, or for what happened over a decade ago. Our union has more leverage when we are productive, safe and profitable.